Dubai ruler in vast charity gift
[BBC] The ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, says he is giving $10bn (£5bn) to set up an educational foundation in the Middle East.
The money is meant to improve the standard of education and research in the region, and aims to stimulate job creation, Sheikh Mohammed said.
It is thought to be one of the largest charitable donations in history.
The announcement was made to widespread applause at the World Economic Forum, which is being held in Jordan.
Sheikh Mohammed, known as a successful racehorse owner as well as ruler of Dubai, said his personal initiative was aimed at creating what he called "a knowledge-based society" in the Middle East.
At the moment, he explained, there was high illiteracy in the region - where more than 40% of Arab women cannot read or write.
The whole Arab world publishes fewer books than the country of Turkey.
And spending on scientific research is only a tiny fraction of that in developed countries.
"There is a wide knowledge gap between us and the developed world in the West and in Asia. Our only choice is to bridge this gap as quickly as possible, because our age is defined by knowledge," the sheikh said.
While there may be less learning in the region, there is high unemployment, and it is likely to get higher with a rapidly growing population.
"Our region needs at this moment 15 million job opportunities, and our Arab world will need in the next 20 years between 74 to 85 million job opportunities," the sheikh told the conference.
"We need to develop the infrastructure so we can create jobs."
Sheikh Mohammed hopes to increase education and research, and also to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship throughout the region.
"In order to realise these objectives, I have decided to establish the Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum Foundation to focus on human development, and have I decided to endow a fund of $10bn to finance its projects," he said.
As ruler of Dubai, he can share the success of his principality, which is known the world over as the economic success story of the Middle East.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Gonzales rapped as president's 'yes man'
[Via AP] Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says his long friendship with President Bush makes it easier to say "no" to him on sticky legal issues. His critics, however, say Gonzales is far more likely to say "yes" - leaving the Justice Department vulnerable to a politically determined White House.
[Via AP] Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says his long friendship with President Bush makes it easier to say "no" to him on sticky legal issues. His critics, however, say Gonzales is far more likely to say "yes" - leaving the Justice Department vulnerable to a politically determined White House.
Probably not since Watergate has an attorney general been so closely bound to the White House's bidding. In pushing counterterror programs that courts found unconstitutional and in stacking the ranks of federal prosecutors with Republican loyalists, Gonzales has put Bush's stamp on an institution that is supposed to operate largely free of the White House and beyond the reach of politics.
"This intertwining of the political with the running of the Justice Department has gone on in other administrations, both Republican and Democrat," said Paul Rothstein, a professor at Georgetown Law School. "But I think it's being carried to a fine art by this president. They leave no stone unturned to politicize where they think the law will permit it. And they push the line very far."
Gonzales, a friend and adviser to Bush since their days in Texas, calls their close relationship "a good thing."
"Being able to go and having a very candid conversation and telling the president: 'Mr. President, this cannot be done. You can't do this,' - I think you want that," Gonzales told reporters this week. "And I think having a personal relationship makes that, quite frankly, much easier always to deliver bad news."
"Do you recall a time when you (were) in there and said, 'Mr. President, we can't do this'?" Gonzales was asked.
"Oh, yeah," the attorney general responded.
"Can you share it with us?" a reporter asked.
"No," Gonzales said.
Gonzales, facing a no-confidence vote in the Senate, is resisting lawmakers' demands to resign and says he will remain as attorney general until he no longer has the president's support. The White House is steadfastly backing its man.
"It's important for any public official to have as much confidence as he can garner, and it will ebb and flow," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Friday. "But it will not ebb and flow with this president and this attorney general."
An ever-growing cadre of critics says Gonzales has repeatedly sought to shape the normally independent Justice Department to the White House's ends. The department has long resisted political influences that could threaten its ability to fairly and impartially uphold the law.
Among examples they cite of White House meddling at the Justice Department:
-A dramatic 2004 confrontation between Gonzales, then serving as White House counsel, and former Attorney General John Ashcroft over whether to reauthorize a secret program to let the government spy on suspected terrorists without court approval.
At the time, Ashcroft was hospitalized in intensive care and not seeing any visitors. His former deputy, Jim Comey, told the Senate this week that Gonzales and then-White House chief of staff Andy Card came to Ashcroft's hospital room to get his approval in what Comey described as an "effort to take advantage of a very sick man."
Ashcroft refused to sign off on the program. The next day, the White House reauthorized the program without the Justice Department's approval. Ultimately, Bush ordered changes to the program to help the Justice Department defend its legality.
Less than a year later, in February 2005, Gonzales took Ashcroft's place as attorney general. The program was branded unconstitutional by a federal judge and has since been changed to require court approval before surveillance can be conducted.
-Allegations that Monica Goodling, the Justice Department's liaison to the White House and Gonzales' former counsel, aimed to only hire career prosecutors who were Republicans. Making hiring decisions based on political affiliation is illegal.
Goodling quit the Justice Department last month and is set to testify next week before a House panel investigating whether politics played a part in the firings last year of eight U.S. attorneys.
-Justice Department documents show that shortly after the 2004 elections, Bush political adviser Karl Rove questioned whether all 93 of the nation's top federal prosecutors should be ordered to resign. He also helped coach Justice aide William Moschella's planned testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. Rove also was included in e-mail traffic about the firings between the White House and the Justice Department.
As presidential appointees, U.S. attorneys serve at the president's pleasure, and the White House is properly involved in discussions about their employment. But Rove used an unofficial e-mail address, registered to the Republican National Committee, to correspond about the firings - raising the specter that politics was behind the ousters.
-The administration changed policy to allow more Justice Department officials to be in touch with the White House about some of the government's most sensitive criminal and civil cases. During the tenure of Democrat Bill Clinton, such discussions were restricted to six people - two at Justice and four at the White House.
In 2002, a year after Bush took office, the number of people was greatly expanded. By Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's estimates, 417 White House staff members and 42 Justice Department employees can discuss sensitive cases.
"It creates a partisan atmosphere, and that creates issues of confidence in the administering of justice," said Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat who previously served as U.S. attorney there.
Some Republicans, too, doubt Gonzales can keep the White House's influence from improperly seeping into the Justice Department.
"The problem here is that it appears the attorney general, when he moved from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the Department of Justice, he didn't realize he'd changed jobs," said Arnold I. Burns, a deputy attorney general during the Reagan administration.
Burns himself is a reminder that close ties between Justice and the White House have posed problems before. He resigned in 1988 in protest of charges of improper behavior by then-Attorney General Edwin Meese III, a longtime friend of President Reagan. Meese was later cleared but resigned before the end of the term.
Former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, too, had obvious close ties to President John F. Kennedy, his brother. But critics say Gonzales' relationship with Bush rivals that between former Attorney General John Mitchell and his former law partner, President Nixon.
Mitchell left the Justice Department in 1972 to run Nixon's re-election campaign. He served 19 months in prison after conviction on conspiracy, perjury and obstruction of justice charges for his role in the Watergate break-in of Democratic headquarters.
Reacting to Watergate abuses, Carter administration Attorney General Griffin Bell instituted reforms to help maintain the department's independence. Among the changes: a ban on lawmakers and the White House directly contacting prosecutors about specific investigations.
That ban was violated last year when New Mexico GOP Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson called former U.S. attorney David Iglesias in Albuquerque to ask about the status of public corruption cases. Iglesias later said they wanted to know whether he was going to indict Democrats before the looming election. The incident is cited by Democrats who argue the U.S. attorney firings were politically motivated.
No one has accused Gonzales, personally, of breaking the law to put Bush's stamp on the Justice Department. The attorney general maintains he is working to not only fix mistakes that his aides made in hiring and firing prosecutors, but also to secure the public's confidence in the beleaguered department.
Whether he can salvage his own reputation remains to be seen.
Philip Heymann, a Harvard law professor who worked at the Justice Department under several Democratic presidents, said the White House is using the law "almost exclusively as a form of protection and a form of armor, if you can get the Justice Department to say it's fine."
"I think they wanted a loyal attorney general, not somebody who would say 'no' when they very badly wanted them to say 'yes,'" Heymann said. "And now they've got that."
Zombie Dogs
[Via NYTimes] Just as dogs preceded humans in making the first risky voyages into space, a new generation of canines has now made an equally path-breaking trip - from life to death and back again.
In a series of experiments, doctors at the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research at the University of Pittsburgh managed to plunge several dogs into a state of total, clinical death before bringing them back to the land of the living. The feat, the researchers say, points the way toward a time when human beings will make a similar trip, not as a matter of ghoulish curiosity but as a means of preserving life in the face of otherwise fatal injuries.
The method for making the trip is simple. The Safar Center team took the dogs, swiftly flushed their bodies of blood and replaced it with a relatively cool saline solution (approximately 45 to 50 degrees) laced with oxygen and glucose. The dogs quickly went into cardiac arrest, and with no demonstrable heartbeat or brain activity, clinically died.
There the dogs remained in what Patrick Kochanek, the director of the Safar Center, and his colleagues prefer to call a state of suspended animation. After three full hours, the team reversed their steps, withdrawing the saline solution, reintroducing the blood and thereby warming the dogs back to life. In a flourish worthy of Mary Shelley, they jump-started their patients' hearts with a gentle electric shock. While a small minority of the dogs suffered permanent damage, most did not, awakening in full command of their faculties.
Of course, the experiments were conducted not to titillate fans of horror films but to save lives. Imagine a stabbing victim brought to the emergency room, his aorta ruptured, or a soldier mortally wounded, his organs ripped apart by shrapnel. Ordinarily, doctors cannot save such patients: they lose blood far more quickly than it can be replaced; moreover, the underlying trauma requires hours of painstaking repair. But imagine doctors buying time with the help of an infusion of an ice-cold solution, then parking their patients at death's door while they repair and then revive them.
Such a day may soon be at hand. Assuming the financing materializes, the Safar Center will coordinate human trials in the next two years (using patients who, after arriving at a trauma center, suffer cardiac arrest from massive blood loss). Risky? Yes. But as the dogs of the Safar Center can attest, far better to buy a round-trip than a one-way ticket when visiting the land of the dead.
[Via NYTimes] Just as dogs preceded humans in making the first risky voyages into space, a new generation of canines has now made an equally path-breaking trip - from life to death and back again.
In a series of experiments, doctors at the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research at the University of Pittsburgh managed to plunge several dogs into a state of total, clinical death before bringing them back to the land of the living. The feat, the researchers say, points the way toward a time when human beings will make a similar trip, not as a matter of ghoulish curiosity but as a means of preserving life in the face of otherwise fatal injuries.
The method for making the trip is simple. The Safar Center team took the dogs, swiftly flushed their bodies of blood and replaced it with a relatively cool saline solution (approximately 45 to 50 degrees) laced with oxygen and glucose. The dogs quickly went into cardiac arrest, and with no demonstrable heartbeat or brain activity, clinically died.
There the dogs remained in what Patrick Kochanek, the director of the Safar Center, and his colleagues prefer to call a state of suspended animation. After three full hours, the team reversed their steps, withdrawing the saline solution, reintroducing the blood and thereby warming the dogs back to life. In a flourish worthy of Mary Shelley, they jump-started their patients' hearts with a gentle electric shock. While a small minority of the dogs suffered permanent damage, most did not, awakening in full command of their faculties.
Of course, the experiments were conducted not to titillate fans of horror films but to save lives. Imagine a stabbing victim brought to the emergency room, his aorta ruptured, or a soldier mortally wounded, his organs ripped apart by shrapnel. Ordinarily, doctors cannot save such patients: they lose blood far more quickly than it can be replaced; moreover, the underlying trauma requires hours of painstaking repair. But imagine doctors buying time with the help of an infusion of an ice-cold solution, then parking their patients at death's door while they repair and then revive them.
Such a day may soon be at hand. Assuming the financing materializes, the Safar Center will coordinate human trials in the next two years (using patients who, after arriving at a trauma center, suffer cardiac arrest from massive blood loss). Risky? Yes. But as the dogs of the Safar Center can attest, far better to buy a round-trip than a one-way ticket when visiting the land of the dead.
Military bans YouTube and Myspace
[Via Wired] The Defense Department isn't trying to "muzzle" troops by banning YouTube and MySpace on their networks, a top military information technology officer tells DANGER ROOM. Rear Admiral Elizabeth Hight, Deputy Commander of Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations, says that the decision to block access to social networking, video-sharing, and other "recreational" sites is purely at attempt to "preserve military bandwidth for operational missions."
Not that the 11 blocked sites are clogging networks all that much today, she adds. But YouTube, MySpace, and the like "could present a potential problem," at some point in the future. So the military wanted to "get ahead of the problem before it became a problem."
The Admiral won't say, however -- despite repeated questions during a Thursday conference call -- exactly how much bandwidth the sites were absorbing before they were blocked. She notes only that they were these were the 11 Internet sites taking up the most network traffic on military networks. And that checking these sites for viruses and malware before they hit Defense Department computers was also a significant concern. Other sites -- including popular blogging sites, like wordpress and blogspot -- could be blocked in the future, if they appear to present network issues.
[Via Wired] The Defense Department isn't trying to "muzzle" troops by banning YouTube and MySpace on their networks, a top military information technology officer tells DANGER ROOM. Rear Admiral Elizabeth Hight, Deputy Commander of Joint Task Force-Global Network Operations, says that the decision to block access to social networking, video-sharing, and other "recreational" sites is purely at attempt to "preserve military bandwidth for operational missions."
Not that the 11 blocked sites are clogging networks all that much today, she adds. But YouTube, MySpace, and the like "could present a potential problem," at some point in the future. So the military wanted to "get ahead of the problem before it became a problem."
The Admiral won't say, however -- despite repeated questions during a Thursday conference call -- exactly how much bandwidth the sites were absorbing before they were blocked. She notes only that they were these were the 11 Internet sites taking up the most network traffic on military networks. And that checking these sites for viruses and malware before they hit Defense Department computers was also a significant concern. Other sites -- including popular blogging sites, like wordpress and blogspot -- could be blocked in the future, if they appear to present network issues.
Romania decides president's fate
[BBC] Romanian voters go to the polls on Saturday in a referendum that will decide the fate of the country's suspended President, Traian Basescu.
Mr Basescu was accused of violating the constitution and was suspended by parliament on 19 April.
[BBC] Romanian voters go to the polls on Saturday in a referendum that will decide the fate of the country's suspended President, Traian Basescu.
Mr Basescu was accused of violating the constitution and was suspended by parliament on 19 April.
He has been locked in a long-running power struggle with his former ally, Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu.
With a high turnout expected, Mr Basescu is tipped to win enough support to survive in office.
It has been a bitter, polarising campaign in which appeals for civility and restraint have all but been ignored, says the BBC's Razvan Scortea in Bucharest.
The voters will have to decide whether President Basescu is a threat to democracy or a political hero pushing for renewal and good governance.
On Friday, Romania's Foreign Minister, Adrian Cioroianu, warned that Europe's patience with Romania had a limit and that after the referendum, politicians should stop fighting and get back to work.
Turmoil in prospect
Polls open at 0800 (0500 GMT) on Saturday and close at 2000, with results expected overnight.
There are more 18 million eligible voters, including 2m Romanians living abroad.
If a majority of those voting back the impeachment, then Mr Basescu will be removed from office.
The opposition Social Democrats, who initiated the impeachment process, describe Mr Basescu as dictatorial and corrupt, a failure who has never lived up to his constitutional duties.
The president claims that his enemies are desperate to stop his anti-corruption drive, which has rattled what he calls "the economic mafia".
The referendum will give the people's verdict, but it may not end the crisis. If the president wins, he will still be facing his opponents in parliament, who also control the government, says our correspondent.
The president has called for them to resign, but legally he cannot force them to go. If Mr Basescu loses, then new presidential elections have to be held within three months.
However, the opposition parties appear to lack a strong candidate, so Mr Basescu could yet return as frontrunner.
Some analysts say that only a general election could calm the situation, but the next poll is more than 18 months away.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Microsoft to buy online Ad company for $6 Billion
[Via AP] Microsoft Corp. said Friday it will buy online advertising firm aQuantive Inc. for about $6 billion in cash, paying a premium to catch up with major ad deals by its competitors over the last six weeks. Shares of aQuantive soared more than 77 percent.
[Via AP] Microsoft Corp. said Friday it will buy online advertising firm aQuantive Inc. for about $6 billion in cash, paying a premium to catch up with major ad deals by its competitors over the last six weeks. Shares of aQuantive soared more than 77 percent.
It is the largest acquisition in the software company's history, said Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, in a conference call following the announcement.
The $66.50-per-share purchase price represents an 85 percent premium to aQuantive's Thursday closing price of $35.87.
Acknowledging that paying such a substantial premium is something Microsoft has avoided in the past, Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said the company believes aQuantive is "exactly the right company to buy" to help position it in a growing market.
Estimates put the online advertising market at $40 billion, and it is expected to grow at a rate of 20 percent a year, Liddell said.
The two companies have "very complementary" technologies, Johnson said, adding that by bringing them together, there is "significant value" to be unlocked.
The company is still far behind Google Inc. and Yahoo in search traffic and thus, search advertising revenue.
The announcement comes just one day after WPP Group PLC, the world's second-largest advertising and marketing conglomerate, said it would buy online advertising company 24/7 Real Media Inc. for $649 million. Microsoft had been widely seen as a potential bidder for 24/7.
Last month Google Inc. agreed to buy online advertising company DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion, and Yahoo Inc. struck a deal to buy the privately-held online ad exchange Right Media Inc. for $680 million. Microsoft had expressed interest in buying DoubleClick before being trumped by Google.
"Today's announcement represents the next step in the evolution of our ad network from our initial investment in MSN, to the broader Microsoft network including Xbox Live, Windows Live and Office Live, and now to the full capacity of the Internet," said Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer in a statement.
The deal is expected close in the first half of Microsoft's fiscal 2008. The acquisition is not expected to significantly affect the company's prior financial guidance. In fiscal 2008, it will "clearly" add revenue, but will not affect earnings per share or operating income, Liddell said.
Under the terms of the agreement, if the deal is broken up under certain circumstances, aQuantive would be liable to Microsoft for a $175 million breakup fee. But, if it fails for lack of regulatory approval under certain conditions, Microsoft in turn could be on the hook to aQuantive for $500 million.
The purchase price represents about 2 percent of Microsoft's market capitalization.
With about 2,600 employees, aQuantive will continue to operate from its Seattle headquarters as part of Microsoft's online services business. The company, which operates marketing services firm Avenue A/Razorfish, reported 2006 profit of $54 million on sales of $442.2 million.
Shares aQuantive rose $27.68 to $63.55 in morning trading, while Microsoft shares fell 35 cents to $30.63
Senators want to make CIA release 9/11 report
Office has not publicized any of its internal documents on the attack
[MSNBC via AP] A bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation that would force the CIA to release an inspector general’s report on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Office has not publicized any of its internal documents on the attack
[MSNBC via AP] A bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation that would force the CIA to release an inspector general’s report on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The CIA has spent more than 20 months weighing requests under the Freedom of Information Act for its internal investigation of the attacks but has yet to release any portion of it.
The agency is the only federal office involved in counterterrorism operations that has not made at least a version of its internal 9/11 investigation public.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Bush says Wolfowitz seeking what's best for bank
Even after being implicated in a money scandal, Bush still thinks Wolfowitz was "seeking what's best for bank."
[Reuters] President George W. Bush said on Thursday that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has an interest in doing what is best for the bank, but declined to comment on his future at the institution.
Even after being implicated in a money scandal, Bush still thinks Wolfowitz was "seeking what's best for bank."
[Reuters] President George W. Bush said on Thursday that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has an interest in doing what is best for the bank, but declined to comment on his future at the institution.
As the World Bank's board was meeting behind closed doors to discuss a possible deal in which Wolfowitz would resign, Bush said, "I regret that it's come to this."
"All I can tell you is Paul Wolfowitz has an interest in what's best for the bank," Bush said at a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
A board panel issued issued a report on Monday that found Wolfowitz broke ethics rules in the handling of a pay raise and promotion for his companion.
AL-Hurra and Radio Sawa, the US-run TV and radio stations in the Middle-East, are propaganda outlets for the White House (funded by taxpayers)
[Counterpunch] "the US has spent $62 million creating an Arab TV channel called Alhurra (the free one) to promote an American-friendly view of escalating violence in the Middle East. So far, it has been an abysmal failure with awful ratings and only marginal public interest"
[Publicdiplomacy] More recent article about the fate of the $70 million/year Channel
[Wikipedia]: Brief article on Radio Sawa radio station
[Wikipedia]: Article on Al-Hurra tv station
[Powerlineblog]: 'investigation into Al-Hurra, the U.S. taxpayer-funded Arab TV network."
[salon.com] On how the US uses the airwaves in Iraq to positively influence America's image
[Counterpunch] "the US has spent $62 million creating an Arab TV channel called Alhurra (the free one) to promote an American-friendly view of escalating violence in the Middle East. So far, it has been an abysmal failure with awful ratings and only marginal public interest"
[Publicdiplomacy] More recent article about the fate of the $70 million/year Channel
[Wikipedia]: Brief article on Radio Sawa radio station
[Wikipedia]: Article on Al-Hurra tv station
[Powerlineblog]: 'investigation into Al-Hurra, the U.S. taxpayer-funded Arab TV network."
[salon.com] On how the US uses the airwaves in Iraq to positively influence America's image
Hot "ice" may cover recently discovered planet
[Reuters] An odd planet the size of Neptune, made mostly of hot, solid water, has been discovered orbiting a nearby star and offers evidence that other planets may be covered with oceans, European astronomers reported on Wednesday.
Called GJ 436b, the planet orbits quickly around a cool, red star some 30 light-years away, the team at the Geneva Observatory said.
"It's not a very welcoming planet," Frederic Pont, an astronomer who helped make the discovery, said in a telephone interview. The planet is hot because it is near its star and under high pressure because of its mass.
"The water is frozen by the pressure but it's hot. It's a bit strange -- we are used to water changing conditions because of temperature, but in fact water can also be solidified by pressure," Pont said.
[Reuters] An odd planet the size of Neptune, made mostly of hot, solid water, has been discovered orbiting a nearby star and offers evidence that other planets may be covered with oceans, European astronomers reported on Wednesday.
Called GJ 436b, the planet orbits quickly around a cool, red star some 30 light-years away, the team at the Geneva Observatory said.
"It's not a very welcoming planet," Frederic Pont, an astronomer who helped make the discovery, said in a telephone interview. The planet is hot because it is near its star and under high pressure because of its mass.
"The water is frozen by the pressure but it's hot. It's a bit strange -- we are used to water changing conditions because of temperature, but in fact water can also be solidified by pressure," Pont said.
Dog nurses Tiger triplets at China zoo
Dog nurses 3 tiger cubs that were rejected by their mother shortly after birth (Full story here)
Dog nurses 3 tiger cubs that were rejected by their mother shortly after birth (Full story here)
N.Y. attorney general sues Dell
[Via AP] New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday accused Dell Inc. and its financial services affiliate of "bait and switch" advertising and failing to deliver on promised customer service.
[Via AP] New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday accused Dell Inc. and its financial services affiliate of "bait and switch" advertising and failing to deliver on promised customer service.
Round Rock, Texas-based Dell lured customers with zero percent financing, then switched them to a higher rate without their knowledge at the time of purchase, according to the lawsuit.
Cuomo announced details of a lawsuit filed a day earlier in the New York Supreme Court, claiming that Dell and Dell Financial Services LP engaged in fraud, false advertising and deceptive business practices.
Dell denied those charges in a written statement from spokesman Bob Pearson.
"We are confident that our practices will be found to be fair and appropriate," Pearson said. "While even one dissatisfied customer is too many, the allegations in the AG's filing are based upon a small fraction of Dell's consumer transactions in New York."
Cuomo said his office had "received an unprecedented number of complaints against Dell, approximately 700 and they keep coming."
"We want fairness," Cuomo said Wednesday. "Either provide the customer service packages that you sell or don't sell the packages."
That number is not representative of the company's six million transactions in New York State between 2003 and 2006, said Dell spokesman, Bob Kaufman.
Kaufman cited a decline in complaints submitted to the Better Business Bureau against Dell. That number dropped 12 percent nationwide between 2005 and 2006, while the number of complaints against Dell Financial Services dropped 43 percent in the same period, said Carrie Hurt, president and CEO of the BBB of Austin, Texas.
While Dell frequently advertises zero percent financing plans for computer purchases, the attorney general said that as many of 85 percent of those who applied did not receive that rate.
Paul Reisner, of Rye, said his excellent credit rating was permanently scarred following such a deception. The computer programmer said he was offered zero percent financing for six months, during which he paid off his $1,500 computer. He was then informed he had never qualified for the rate and was obligated to pay a 29 percent interest rate, he said.
"Why did I not qualify for promotional financing?" he asked. "I own my own home, always pay my bills on time."
The lawsuit also claims that Dell sold onsite computer repair plans but failed to deliver, at times requiring customers to disassemble their own computers.
Jaqueline Scofield, 75, said she was outraged when she and her husband were told by Dell that they would have to open the body of their computer.
"We both have arthritis in our knees," she said. "And to tell my husband to get down on the floor ... I'll never buy another Dell."
The lawsuit seeks an order requiring Dell to pay unspecified damages to affected customers and the state is also seeking penalties and costs.
In an unrelated probe, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Dell's own audit committee have been investigating the company's accounting practices.
In recent months, Dell has seen a management shake-up that included the departure of several top executives - including Chief Executive Officer Kevin Rollins and Chief Financial Officer Jim Schneider - and the return of Michael Dell as CEO.
With Dell at the helm, the company has been trying to orchestrate a turnaround plan to improve customer service and combat competitors who have eaten into Dell's market share.
Strange Science
Since 1991, dozens of scientists have won the widely coveted IgNobel awards, which recognize extraordinary accomplishments that somehow escape the notice of those oh-so-serious Nobel people. The Annals of Improbable Research, the journal of the IgNobels, last month went digital. In honor of this achievement, which comes only a few short decades after the invention of the internet, Wired News highlights several of our favorite IgNobel winners. (Slideshow here)
Since 1991, dozens of scientists have won the widely coveted IgNobel awards, which recognize extraordinary accomplishments that somehow escape the notice of those oh-so-serious Nobel people. The Annals of Improbable Research, the journal of the IgNobels, last month went digital. In honor of this achievement, which comes only a few short decades after the invention of the internet, Wired News highlights several of our favorite IgNobel winners. (Slideshow here)
LG Philips to develop the world’s first A4-sized flexible color e-paper
LG Philips developed the world’s first A4-sized flexible color electronic-paper in Korea market, which measures 14.1-inch across its diagonal and is 300 micrometers thick.
Adopting American company E-ink's E-ink, the e-paper can display up to 4,096 colors and feature 180-dgree viewing angle. It is designed to be energy-efficient; according to the company the screen remains even when it is powered off and it requires power only when the screen changes.[Source]
LG Philips developed the world’s first A4-sized flexible color electronic-paper in Korea market, which measures 14.1-inch across its diagonal and is 300 micrometers thick.
Adopting American company E-ink's E-ink, the e-paper can display up to 4,096 colors and feature 180-dgree viewing angle. It is designed to be energy-efficient; according to the company the screen remains even when it is powered off and it requires power only when the screen changes.[Source]
Wolfowitz refuses to quit Bank, wants name cleared after money scandal
[Reuters] World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz refused on Wednesday to bow to heavy European pressure to resign as he sought to clear his name in negotiations with the bank's board over a possible exit strategy.
[Reuters] World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz refused on Wednesday to bow to heavy European pressure to resign as he sought to clear his name in negotiations with the bank's board over a possible exit strategy.
"Mr. Wolfowitz will not resign under this cloud and he will rather put this matter to a full (board) vote than to capitulate on his integrity," his lawyer Robert Bennett told Reuters.
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